Professor A Vaidyanathan, the legend whose seminal work on rural co-operatives finds mention in all cooperative conclaves breathed his last on June 10th night at Coimbatore.
Reacting to his demise NCUI President Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav said “its an irreparable loss to the rural cooperative movement as his recommendations for PACS were a milestone.
Stunned by the news, IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi said “I am shocked to know about the sad demise of Sh Vaidyanathan. His contribution in strengthening cooperative credit systems is enormous. I pray to God to give him a place in heaven. Om Shanti!
A Vaidyanathan had also been on the Central Board of RBI in the past. Reacting to his death, Satish Marathe who is currently on the RBI Board said “India has lost an academician and an Economist par excellence. He was a prolific writer and authored several books on issues relating to Agriculture and Rural Development. He will be remembered for his deep studies on Poverty Alleviation, Food Security and Employment generation in Rural areas.”
A former Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies and Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum Vaidyanathan was known as a Data Man for his penchant for collecting data and making meaningful conclusions from them. He was also a member of the Planning Commission.
Such was the aura of the man that several developmental economists, IIM Professors and even some RBI Governors treated him as their Guru. “He guided me as my guru and inspired me to continue to work on public policy,” says Y V Reddy, the former governor of the RBI.
Chairing the Task Force on Revival of Cooperative Credit Institutions in 2004, also known as the Vaidyanathan committee, he recommended a series of initiatives for the revival of rural co-operative bodies. Sadly, most of his recommendations still remain to be implemented, though some beginning was made only last year.
About 8 months back on 15 July 2019 Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha said that based on the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee, the Government implemented a revival package for Short Term Cooperative Credit Structure (STCCS) encompassing legal and institutional reforms.
Thakur also talked of Long-Term Rural Credit Fund (LTRCF) for the purpose of providing long term refinance support to Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks at a concessional rate of interest for their lending towards investment activities in agriculture.
The Vaidyanathan Task Force was set up in 2004 to revamp rural cooperative credit institutions and it favoured revival of cooperative institutions offering short- and long-term credit facilities.
Later in September 2009, another Task Force headed by G C Chaturvedi was set up to re-analyse the Vaidyanathan Committee recommendations on revival of cooperatives offering long term credit.